What are the advantages of standardizing coding terminologies? And what is the best way to achieve consistency for information systems?

As Dr. John Glaser notes in the “What Is Health Informatics?” media presentation (assigned in Week 1), a group of physicians may use many different terms to describe one patient’s painful experience. This simple example can be extrapolated to guide your thinking about the obstacles that have arisen for information system development because of the varied and complex nature of health care.

In this week’s Discussion, you evaluate the interoperability and coding challenges encountered in today’s health care organizations.

To prepare:

Think about how controlled terminology and standards facilitate information sharing, for example, sharing data between an emergency care clinic and a pharmacy or between a primary care physician’s office and a specialist’s office.

Reflect on the national health IT agenda as presented in the Learning Resources.

Consider challenges health care providers are facing in light of the national health IT agenda related to sharing data across information systems and/or controlled terminology standards. What strategies could a health care organization use to address interoperability challenges? Conduct additional research as necessary to determine possible solutions.

Write a cohesive response that addresses the following:

Evaluate the challenges that health care organizations may face when sharing data across systems.

Using your professional experience and/or information gathered through research, provide at least two specific examples of interoperability challenges.

This chapter introduces the definition, standards, and challenges of interoperability. The authors also detail the impact that interoperable systems will likely have on the future of electronic health records (EHRs) in response to the national health IT agenda.

Retrieved from the Walden Library using the MEDLINE with Full Text database.

In this article, the author outlines the impact that electronic health records (EHRs) and standardized terminologies have on clinicians, administrators, governments, patients, and consumers. Strategies for terminology utilization and management are given.

Retrieved from the Walden Library using the ProQuest Central database.

This article begins with an historical overview of computer use in the health care industry. Then it takes an in-depth look at the incentives being used to increase the percentage of practice settings that comply with the integration of electronic health records and interoperable technologies.

The authors of this article use the experiences of the Nationwide Health Information Network’s Trial Implementations project to describe the process and challenges of developing content specific standards.

Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/health_data_standards.htm

This website provides a link to two organizations that focus on health standards and statistics. The first organization that you may choose to view is the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, which was established by Congress and advises the Department of Health and Human Services. The second is called the Public Health Data and Standards consortium, a not-for-profit organization that works with a variety of agencies, associations, and organizations.

Access this website to gain information on LOINC’s universal coding system for laboratory and clinical observations.

Website: Saba, V. (2011). Clinical Care Classification System.

Retrieved from http://www.sabacare.com/

At this website, you can view the framework of the Clinical Care Classification (CCC) coding structure. Use the side tabs to view the features that make this coding terminology widely accepted as a means to document patient care in electronic health care records.

The Unified Medical Language System uses its three tools, or Knowledge Sources, named Metathesaurus, Semantic Network, and SPECIALIST Lexicon and Lexical Tools to combine many popular standards and terminologies used in the health care industry. This integrated system facilitates interoperability between computer systems.